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Good Morning Starshine — Oliver
Although we’re pretty keen on song lyrics around here, I don’t believe you have to understand the lyrics, necessarily, to enjoy a song.
For example, I enjoy listening to songs in French, Spanish and Portuguese. Beyond a bit of basic French I have no idea what’s going on in these songs, but I like the way they make me feel, so I still listen to them.
Sometimes songwriters include lyrical references so obscure and intellectual that you’ve no idea what they’re talking about. You know they’re referring to something…but quite what is anyone’s guess. However you can still enjoy the song on its own merits.
And the final category of songs you can enjoy without knowing what’s going on are those songs where the lyrics are genuinely nonsense. For all we know, the songwriters might have been imbibing industrial quantities of intoxicants of one sort or another…but the end results, no matter how pleasurable to listen to, defy any attempt by listeners to understand what the lyrics are supposed to be about.
“Good Morning Starshine” by Oliver falls firmly into that third category, comprising mostly of lyrics which, in the nicest possible way, make absolutely no sense.
Now, I mean that with the greatest affection. Around here I celebrate songs I like. I’m not taking cheap shots at songs just to be a smart aleck.
As I remember someone saying about their movie commentaries, I’m not a critic, I’m a fan. So when I write about a song, it’s because I love it and want to celebrate it. I’m not tearing it down.
That said, even by the standards of songs that don’t make much sense, “Good Morning Starshine” is definitely at or near the top of the pile, with lyrics such as…
Gliddy glub gloopy nibby nabby noopy la la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba nooby abba nabba le le lo lo
This isn’t just a bit of extemporising on the fade-out, as you sometimes come across. Lyrics like these comprise a good two-thirds of the entire song.
Despite being virtually unintelligible, for the most part, “Good Morning Starshine” captures the spirit of being optimistic about the world in a way in which only a song, written by hippies and originally performed in 1967, could possibly have captured.
